Desolate Era

by RWX

  ……

  Within Earthmoan Mountain.

  THUMP!

  An extremely loud heartbeat rang out from under the ground, and the sound seemed to smash against the hearts of Ji Ning and the others. The entire team floated in midair, carefully watching their surroundings.

  “Ji Ning, the six of us have set up a formation; we can work together to defend against any sneak attacks. You, however, don’t have anything protecting you. I think you should enter an estate-treasure for now. After we escape from Earthmoan Mountain, you can come out once more.” Kuafu’s group of six had already joined together into an enormous formation, and they were sharing their divine power with each other. All of them were surrounded by rings of golden light.

  “No need.” Ning shook his head.

  Kuafu frowned slightly upon seeing this. “This is a critical situation. You can’t be headstrong, Ji Ning.”

  “No need to worry about me, fellow Daoist Kuafu. When my true body was destroyed by the Seamless Gate, I still ended up surviving, right?” Ning looked at Kuafu.

  Kuafu was briefly startled, then nodded. “If you aren’t willing to hide, fine. How about this? Stay inside of our formation. If there any attacks come your way, the formation will be able to help you block a few blows. This formation protects against external attacks but not internal attacks. You’ll still be able to fight back from inside the formation.”

  “Alright.” Ning nodded in acceptance.

  Kuafu, Xingtian, Empress Xi, Windfate, Graceful Peacock, Luwu. These six True Gods were sharing their divine power with each other. Rings of golden light were surrounding them, helping to defend against any dangers, and Ning was located within the formation itself.

  The six True Gods exchanged glances with each other, feeling quite resigned. As they saw it, this Sword Immortal Darknorth was being far too rash and arrogant. Earthmoan Mountain was such an incredibly dangerous place that even the six of them had to be extremely careful. In fact, they had even asked Lord Buddha to come rescue them. Ji Ning, however, insisted on staying outside…ugh! This overconfidence stemmed from the fact that he simply hadn’t trained for long enough!

  Thump! Thump! Thump! Suddenly, the ‘pulse’ began to quicken.

  The illusions around them began to change as well. Previously, they had been surrounded by endless tides of foul water. Now, it suddenly changed to a dense thicket of trees. Ning and the six were all standing within the thicket.

  “Hurry up and leave. Fly out of the thicket,” Kuafu said hurriedly.

  Swoosh! All seven of them strove to fly out, but no matter how hard or how quickly they flew, they remained trapped within the thicket.

  “We won’t be able to fly out. Without being able to see through the illusions of Earthmoan Mountain, there’s no way we can leave it at all.” Daofather Windfate shook his head after taking another look. “When Daoist Three Purities was trapped here, he was able to rely on his incredible power to survive against the dangers present. Despite that, he was still trapped here for more than three thousand years before he was able to see the true face of Earthmoan Mountain and leave it.”

  “These are all illusions.” Graceful Peacock was worried as well.

  “We aren’t able to see through them and see the true face of Earthmoan Mountain,” Xingtian said with concern.

  Ning carefully inspected the surrounding area as well.

  Earthmoan Mountain was extremely famous. Once you entered it, you would face countless changing illusions and be perpetually trapped by them. Major powers might try to fly out with all their might, but they would remain within Earthmoan Mountain, unable to escape.

  There were only two methods for leaving this place. The first was to rely on overwhelming raw power to annihilate the entire Earthmoan Mountain! However, not even Daoist Three Purities had been able to destroy this bizarre place. Most likely, only World Gods like Mother Nuwa would be able to accomplish it. There was no chance whatsoever that Ning’s group would be able to do it.

  The second method was to do what Daoist Three Purities did; to see through the illusions and see the truth of Earthmoan Mountain. It would then be possible to fly out!

  Lord Tathagata the Buddha was extremely skilled in seeing through illusions. The Buddhists were all quite skilled in illusions to begin with.

  Bang! Suddenly, a terrifying attack descended, stabbing straight towards True God Luwu. The layers of golden light protecting True God Luwu were instantly pierced through! Judging from the way in which the piercing occurred, it appeared as the attack came from an awl-shaped object.

  True God Luwu was so frightened that he immediately lashed out with his whip to block while frantically dodging.

  Slash!

  True God Luwu’s flank was sliced open. A large bloody wound appeared on his side, but his divine power quickly healed it.

  “Everyone, be careful. Earthmoan Mountain’s attacks are very powerful,” True God Luwu said hurriedly. “The formation is unable to completely block it. However, the formation is still able to whittle away at its power a bit. If it wasn’t for the formation, I wouldn’t have merely lost a chunk of flesh; I would’ve been ripped in half.”

  “Be careful,” Daofather Windfate said solemnly. “It looks like we are surrounded by a thicket of trees, but all of that is illusory. The true scene is that of those strange objects flying towards us and attacking us.”

  Ning frowned as well.

  Despite being weakened by their protective formation, that strange object was still able to easily wound a True God. This was simply far too terrifying. The worst part of it was…they had no idea where it had come from. By the time they were able to notice it, its attack would have already arrived as well.

  “What should I do?” Ning carefully scanned his surroundings, his eyes blazing with torch-light. He used the [Torch-Dragon’s Eye] to carefully scan the area, but the only result was that the trees and the leaves around them became even sharper and more in-focus. He could now even see the leafy veins! But alas, he couldn’t find any traces of an illusion at all.

  “To see through the illusions and see the truth…”

  “How am I supposed to do that? When Daoist Three Purities was trapped here, he was also unable to leave until he saw through the illusions and saw the truth.” Ning frowned. “But how?”

  Ning was carefully inspecting his surroundings with his physical vision, his coresense, and even his heartforce. All his senses, however, were ‘seeing’ exactly the same things his eyes were seeing. It was as though the trees and the thicket around them actually were real. In truth, it made sense; even Daoist Three Purities had been trapped here for three thousand years before being able to escape. Seeing through the illusions would be no easy feet!

  Rumble…

  Ning’s heartforce rippled out from him in a series of waves as Ning used the heartforce scrying technique which World God Northrest had transmitted to him, causing his heartforce scanned through every inch of space around him. This scanning technique could be said to be the most detailed such technique in the Three Realms. It truly surpassed all other similar techniques; Ning had searched the memories of the Fiendgods and Immortals of the Pangaea prisoners but was still unable to find any heartforce scrying technique that could compare to his.

  Suddenly, his rippling heartforce seemed to detect a slight wave of motion.

  Bang!

  An invisible object once more stabbed straight through the layers of golden light and pierced towards Empress Xi.

  * * *

  Book 22, Chapter 15 - That Tiny Wave

  Empress Xi only noticed the attack after the strange object had torn through all those layers of protection. Her face instantly changed. “Not good!” She hurriedly dodged while brandishing her sleeves to block. Clang! The sharp object struck against her sleeves, then flew off towards another direction.

  “Be careful, everyone.” Empress Xi said hurriedly, “It is too fast; you can’t let yourself be caught offguard!”

&n
bsp; “Xingtian, do you have any more shield-type treasures?” True God Luwu asked hurriedly.

  “I do.” Xingtian produced a small buckler in his hand, then sent it flying towards True God Luwu. It rapidly increased in size, becoming nearly half his height. True God Luwu grabbed the buckler with one hand, using his other to continue holding onto his metal whip.

  Xingtian was similarly holding a buckler in one hand and his Heaven Punisher Axe in the other. He hurriedly asked, “Anyone else need a buckler?” As he spoke his gaze couldn’t help but turn towards Ning, located in the center of the formation.

  Of the seven, Kuafu was the strongest. Xingtian and Empress Xi were next, but Xingtian already had a buckler while Empress xi was skilled in using her sleeves.

  Next came Graceful Peacock, Windfate, and Luwu. Luwu had already acquired a buckler, while Daofather Windfate used his fan. The fan could also be used as a shield, and Daofather Windfate would actually be able to unleash more power with his fan than with a buckler. As for Graceful Peacock, her ‘body’ had been forged from a peacock feather that was comparable to a top-grade Protocosmic spirit-treasure. She was actually safer than any of them.

  As Xingtian saw it, Ji Ning was a wielder of the sword. The sword was an offensive weapon; defensively speaking, it was comparatively lacking. He felt that Ji Ning would most likely need a buckler.

  “I don’t need one just yet.” Ning smiled and shook his head.

  “Be careful,” Xingtian warned, then fell silent.

  Attacks continued to rain down upon them from those invisible objects. The six True Gods all guarded carefully against the attacks, and they even decided to shrink the perimeter of their formation so as to better protect Ji Ning within it.

  The six Fiendgods worked together to defend against nineteen waves of attacks. Ji Ning, by contrast, had things easy; protected in the center of the formation, he didn’t suffer any attacks at all.

  “Eh? It seems to have ended,” Graceful Peacock said softly.

  “The cries of the earth are growing softer,” Kuafu agreed.

  Thump. Thump.

  The heartbeat ringing out from deep underground had indeed grown quieter.

  “After a period of time, the sound will grow louder again and the attacks will start anew,” Kuafu said. “Let’s rest for now and prepare to deal with the next wave of attacks.”

  “Right.” The Fiendgods all had rather ugly looks on their faces.

  The invisible attacks were simply too powerful, and they were also extraordinarily unpredictable. During the nineteen waves of attacks, True God Luwu had been injured three times, Daofather Windfate had been injured twice, Empress Xi and Xingtian had each been injured once, while Kuafu, Ning, and Graceful Peacock were uninjured. Each time they suffered an injury, they had to use a large amount of divine power to heal it.

  Using divine power to heal one’s body was extremely taxing. As more time passed the divine power would be used up, at which point they wouldn’t even be able to maintain the formation! The reason why they had been able to survive the nineteen waves of attacks was because the formation served to weaken the power of those attacks. If they were to face those attacks head on, even Kuafu would be in danger of dying.

  Everyone could sense death impending. The atmosphere naturally turned quite grim.

  “This guy Ji Ning…all of us are so nervous, but he’s actually daydreaming?!” True God Luwu gave Ning, still located at the center of the formation, a hard look. Ning stood in the center, eyes completely blank. Clearly, his mind was elsewhere and he was completely preoccupied.

  “Ugh.” True God Luwu was an amiable and honest fellow. He didn’t say anything. “We’ll do our best. If we can protect Ji Ning, we will. If we end up dying, there will be nothing more that we can do. He’s just too young.”

  Ning continued to stand there, pondering to himself. “Each time there is an attack, especially when the attack draws close, I can dimly sense a hint of a ripple spread out. Clearly, the power of the attacks is so great that at a close distance, there’s no way for it to completely avoid my senses. However, I can just sense a tiny wave each time. There’s no way for me to completely verify the exact location the strange object is coming from.”

  Those ripples were perhaps coming from the strange objects, but when those invisible things attacked they instantly arrived before their target, giving the defenders no time to spare.

  “I need to verify and track the direction from which each attack is going to come.”

  “Given how powerful these attacks are, they have to cause at least a tiny bit of spatial disruption.” Ning stared at the thickets around them. “Still…the illusions around us are simply too realistic, and the area around us is filled with multiple ripples that mask the ones coming from those strange objects.”

  “What I need to do is to separate the ripples caused by the illusions from the ripples caused by the strange objects.”

  Ning had been watching closely during the last ten-plus attacks, but he was still unable to ascertain exactly where each attack was going to come from.

  Thump! The heartbeat coming from deep beneath the earth suddenly began to grow stronger once more.

  Thump! Thump! Thump! The heartbeats began to quicken and strengthen.

  “Be careful, everyone. The next wave of attacks from Earthmoan Mountain is about to begin,” Kuafu barked.

  “Right.” The other five True Gods hurriedly acknowledged him. They pumped more energy into their formation, staying on maximum alert.

  As for Ning, his eyes were lidded as he circulated his soul heartforce technique, using it to attune himself to all the many varied ripples that that were occurring around them. There were ripples caused by the wind, by light, by spatial movement, by scent…Ning was able to separate out the spatial ripples, but what he needed to do right now was to identify the specific spatial ripples being generated by those strange objects.

  Even for a major power like Ning, this was incredibly difficult!

  Even Daoist Three Purities had ended up spending more than three thousand years before accomplishing this. Ning’s advantage lay in the formidable techniques taught to him by World God Northrest!

  Whoosh!

  Swish!

  Slash!

  The invisible attacks began to descend upon them once more.

  Kuafu, Xingtian, and the rest all did their best to defend against the attacks, using all of their power.

  “That seems…to be a spatial ripple caused by those strange objects…” Ning remained inside the formation, eyes half-lidded as he continued to carefully attune to the surrounding area.

  “Ji Ning, I really think you should enter an estate-treasure,” Xingtian bellowed. He was fairly close to Ji Ning on a personal level. Ning, however, didn’t respond to him, instead continuing to sweep the area with his senses.

  ……

  The Three Realms, the Allclans Palace of the Primordial Imperial Clan. Many major powers were gathered in this place.

  “Hurry.” Graceful Peacock frantically rose to her feet and said, “This is the third time Earthmoan Mountain is attacking us. True God Luwu has been gravely injured, and his divine power is almost used up. Once he’s completely dry, there will be no way for them to maintain the formation. Kuafu and the others are about to die in Earthmoan Mountain!”

  “Tathagata.” Daoist Three Purities looked towards him.

  “I’m working on breaking the formation,” Lord Buddha said hurriedly. “This should be a formation which Keeper Everwood spent enormous amounts of effort on. He’s used the countless mountains in the area to serve as his formation-bases. Although I’m breaking it apart as fast as I can, I still need more time.”

  “There are no other options.” Tathagata shook his head. “Even if all of you head there right away, you’ll first have to reach their location. By the time you get there, I would’ve broken through the formation long ago.”

  Daoist Three Purities nodded. It was true. Thousand Mountains world wa
s a place filled with countless dangers. There was no way to teleport through the Void to arrive at at that place. Ji Ning, Tathagata, Fuxi, and the others had all been forced to slowly fly their way there.

  “Fuxi is the best at defeating formations, but he’s been tied down by those alien Outsiders of the Primordial Ruinworld,” Graceful Peacock said hurriedly. “There’s no way for him to get there in time either.”

  “Everwood…” The seated Daofather Subhuti had an ugly look on his face.

  In war, one of the most terrifying possibilities was fighting in an arena of your enemy’s choosing.

  Their enemies had already made complete preparations in the Primordial Ruinworld. The Nuwa Alliance knew that…but no matter what, they wouldn’t be willing to give the Primordial Ruinworld the chance to ambush the victors of the Endwar. If for no other reason than to uproot an ally of the Seamless Gate, they had to wipe out the Primordial Ruinworld! However, they were indeed worried about the deadly environment and illusions located within the Primordial Ruinworld, which was why they had only sent two of their overlord-class figures in this campaign. The other major powers would all remain on guard in the Three Realms. If something unexpected happened, they would be able to handle it.

  “I’ve already unleashed all of my dharma-bodies. I’ll be able to break the formation soon,” Tathagata said with a solemn look on his face.

  ……

  Lord Buddha’s squad truly had gone all out.

  The other three Buddhas who had come with him had assembled into a formation. Their holy light spread out in every direction as they launched all sorts of attacks against the land, each strike filled with the power to shatter the heavens and wreck the earth.

  As for Lord Buddha, he had switched into a different form, unleashing all three of his bodies.

  These three bodies were his Sakyamuni body, his Great Sun Buddha body [1. The Sanskrit name is ‘Vairocana’], and his Medicine Buddha body [2. The Sanskrit name is Bhaisajyaguru]. The three of them sent their mighty Buddha-palms smashing down from the skies, shattering apart one mountain range after another with each blow. However, each time some of the mountain ranges would once more be reborn from the natural energy of Heaven and Earth. This was clearly the power of the formation at work.